DVD Review: Varsity Blood

By Brad Henderson

I feel compelled to tell the people who are reading this that a couple years ago I wrote a review for a film called Bloody Homecoming. If you pay attention to my writing and you know anything about me you know that I don’t trash films in reviews. Well, I didn’t trash Bloody Homecoming but I did speak my mind about the film. Bottom line: It wasn’t good and the review was much on the negative side.

The main reason I didn’t like Bloody Homecoming was that it tried so hard to be an old-school throwback horror film but just came out being generic and boring. We were flooded with slashers in the ’80s and ’90s and still are today. If you are going to do a slasher, take it down a new route. That was my biggest issue with Bloody Homecoming, although many other things rubbed me the wrong way throughout the film. After posting the review, one of the filmmakers hassled the editor on the site and hassled me as well. He stated that I didn’t know what I was talking about and I didn’t know anything about horror films, either. Well, that is completely inaccurate and totally out of line. This guy completely went off the rails and after doing so, my editor pulled the review to discontinue the harassment. Come to find out I wasn’t the only one that this happened to and this dude was going around hassling everyone who didn’t care for his film.

Jake Helgren has a new movie out called Varsity Blood. But before we get into the film, let me take you back to the plot of Bloody Homecoming. After a tragic accident in a small town, a group of seniors go to their Homecoming dance but are visited by a masked killer killing them off one by one.

Now let’s move to the plot of Varsity Blood. After a tragic accident a group of students go out to a farmhouse to have a Halloween party but are visited by a masked killer killing them off one by one. Hmmmm.

Varsity Blood is way too similar to Bloody Homecoming in many ways other than the plot. Both films have some of the same actors and actresses as well as extremely childish dialogue. I know we are dealing with jocks and cheerleaders who are dicks, but everyone speaks the same and has the exact same crude humor in both films. I realize it is cool when filmmakers put their films in the same universe but it feels that these films not only happened in the same town, but are basically the same exact movie. Sorry, but that shit is lazy. I don’t care how much you love horror films and slashers, if you basically make the same film over again with a different setting and killer it’s just so bland.

Jake Helgren might be this aficionado of horror films who probably would have hit it big in the ’80s, but we have come a long way since then and we need something fresh and new. You would think he would listen to the critical reviews from his first film and go from there, but instead he just repeated his wrongs.

Am I biased because of what happened? Not really. I did giggle when I figured out I was going to be watching the same film but I went in with an open mind. I wanted Jake Helgren to show me a film I wanted to see and haven’t seen before. Truth is, I will always give movies a chance no matter how many misses the screenwriter or director has had. You can’t base your opinion of a new film on old material from the filmmakers. It isn’t right and you could miss out on something outstanding. Sadly, Varsity Blood isn’t that film.

Varsity Blood will be released on DVD from Image Entertainment on August 19.